Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has said he believes his team is capable of making up for the gap to Red Bull and helping seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton to a record eighth title. Hamilton finished qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix only in seventh place, while his teammate George Russell will start the first race of the season from sixth position. “We are very self-critical and constantly think about our goals. There is no such thing as a perfect car. We took everything into account – we reviewed the choice of concept during design and the timeliness of introducing changes. Everyone in the engineering team is striving for the same goal, we just have to find solutions,” said Wolf and added:
“Hamilton will win his eighth title with Mercedes. Look at Alonso, Lewis can race at least four more years at the highest level. We will do everything to succeed. We’ll even push him around the track, just to win another title. I will do everything necessary to achieve that goal”.
Mercedes had a pretty bad last season, especially considering the standard they set themselves in previous years. The team led by Toto Wolff has won eight constructors’ titles in a row since 2014, while Hamilton, after his first celebration with McLaren in 2008, was the best among drivers six more times as a member of the team from Germany.
Mercedes struggled all season long to discover the cause of the problem with the W13 car, and this resulted in the team’s weakest performance since 2012, as they finished the season in third position with 515 points. The Briton did not record a victory during the previous year, the first time since he was part of the fastest caravan.
The driver who made his debut for McLaren in 2008 equaled Michael Schumacher’s record with seven titles, and if he is crowned champion once again, he will become undisputed in this regard.
